Ophelia Hitting Ireland!

Tropical cyclones aren't supposed to form from non-tropical low-pressure systems.

Tropical cyclones aren't supposed to form on the eastern side of 30 degrees longitude west.

If tropical cyclones do from there, they usually head west, not east . . . and certainly not northeast.

And any storm moving northeastward  from 35 degrees latitude north certainly isn't supposed to become a major hurricane - especially with the ocean water at a temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit - much cooler than the current 86 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures of the waters in the Caribbean.

Also, any such storm, after losing its tropical characteristics, would hardly be expected to maintain hurricane-force winds once it hits land.  

Yet all of this is true about Hurricane Ophelia, the tenth straight hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season and the sixth major hurricane of the season overall, which is still a powerful storm today, having hit . . . Ireland.

Ireland!?

Levi Cowan's GFS map shows me what I can't believe is happening to my paternal ancestral homeland.  Five of the Republic of Ireland's 26 counties are under a "status red" warning, the highest warning for storms in the country.  This is the first hurricane to hit the island since Hurricane Debbie in 1961 and also the worst storm ever of any sort to hit the island since Debbie.

That's right, a hurricane hit Ireland back when its most famous member of the diaspora, John F. Kennedy, was President of the United States.  Hurricanes affecting Europe are rare; the Old Country is mostly affected by remnants of storms that have a greater effect on the Americas, and the few hurricanes that did make it intact to Europe formed close to Africa, not in the middle of the ocean out of non-tropical low.  (Hurricane Faith in 1966 hit northern Europe by way of Bermuda after forming from a wave that generated near the Cape Verde Islands.)   The fact that Ophelia is so unusual, though, in its genesis, its strengthening, and its track proves that something is not right here.  It's very much likely the result of . . .

I can't say it if I want a job with the Environmental Destruction (formerly Protection) Agency, but it rhymes with "primate range."

I'm really depressed now . . ..     

Number Nine . . . Number Nate . . .

The good news is that Hurricane Nate became a tropical storm and then a depression quite rapidly, and its remnants will produce no more than a lot of badly needed rain for my area.  The bad news is that it's the fourth Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on either the continental U.S. or its territorial possessions within a month . . . and it's the ninth straight tropical system in a row - in a row - to become a hurricane this season.

Did I happen to mention that five of those nine hurricanes were major?  Including Lee, which made it no farther than a tropical storm and first and degenerated into an invest . . . only to regenerate and reach Category 3 status?  At least that one was out over the open ocean.

I wonder how many more hurricanes have to hit the U.S. before the Republicans - never mind Trump, he's far from being the only Republican to deny climate change - realize that climate change is real?

Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Gulf Coast . . . the Northeast hasn't been hit yet, but we all know how a late-season storm could form in the Caribbean and make it as far north as New York City or New England.  Maybe after, say, seventeen hurricanes have formed and we think we're in the clear, just like it was with . . . Sandy.

Hurricane Sean, anyone?? :-O

And if that happens, Sean Spicer's head will probably replace the cyclone symbol on track maps circulated on Facebook.